


kind is my love today

by halfwheeze



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Brief Mean Interaction, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, Lovesick Zack Taylor, Lovesickness, M/M, References to Shakespeare, Shakespeare Quotations, Shakespearean Sonnets, all characters but billy and zack are just mentioned, also mama cranston is actually there, not just billy and zack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-26 01:50:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20381722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfwheeze/pseuds/halfwheeze
Summary: billy and zack, some shakespeare, some soft affection, some fairly mutual pining.





	kind is my love today

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first foray into writing for this fandom despite my great love, so let me know what you think!

He can’t help it. Zack has always been the overwhelming guy, the guy who picked his mother a fresh bouquet of white roses when he found them out in the woods, the guy who painted a portrait of his first crush. He loves too loudly for it to be kept inside of himself, or for it to just be put into words. Now that he has friends, he does things for them all the time! He hangs out with Trini and helps her with her brothers, comes to Kim’s house to be a makeup model, goes head to head with Jason on anything just so he can get his competitive energy out. But, there’s a problem. 

Anyone with eyes can see how much more of his time he dedicates to Billy. Trini makes fun of him  _ constantly  _ for his obvious crush on the blue ranger, and honestly, Zack can’t blame her. He makes fun of her for her crush on Kim too. 

Billy and Trini are the only ones allowed to stay at Zack’s house, the only ones allowed to get up with him to check on his mom, the only ones he wants there. He’s slowly teaching Billy Chinese, and his mother is delighting in speaking to someone else in their tongue. Trini has developed a complex language of hand signals and strangely specific facial expressions that both she and Zack’s mother seem to understand, so teaching her Chinese has not become as relevant. Not that Zack is very… interested in teaching it to his best friend. It may just be another excuse to spend more time with Billy. 

Sue him. 

“Hey Blue,” Zack greets as he walks up to Billy’s locker, container in hand. He had texted Billy to warn him about it the night before, so Billy lights up as Zack walks closer, making grabby hands in Zack’s direction. Well, in the direction of the food. Not in Zack’s direction. That’s just silly, and totally doesn’t make Zack’s heart ache at all. 

“Chicken,” Billy says simply, reaching for the container. Zack laughs and passes it to him, caught up in how cute he looks today; he’s wearing blue jeans and a black t-shirt. Zack doesn’t let himself feel like it’s a claim even when his heart wants him to. The chicken is actually chicken and rice and onions; Billy is on a honey mustard kick this week, and there’s this recipe that Zack has always liked, so he offered it. Well. He didn’t really offer it so much as text Billy that he was making it, not even hinting that he was making it specifically  _ for  _ Billy (because he’s a coward), and brought it when Billy asked. 

“Not even a greeting for your poor buddy Zack?” Zack teases, quietly delighted as Billy happily tucks the container into his locker. He’s a bit surprised when Billy just tucks himself beneath Zack’s chin, though not as surprised as he’d usually be. Billy’s been having a good few days with tactility, which all of the Rangers have been more than happy to indulge him in. It’s just usually hand holding, hand shakes, little touches. This is not a little touch, and Zack indulges in it maybe a little more than he should as he embraces Billy fully. 

“Hi Zack,” the other boy says before pulling away, flashing him a goofy smile. Zack was taught to never be the first person to pull away from hugs, because you never really know how much someone else needs it, but he always pulls the cue right after Billy hands it to him. The curve of Billy’s smile has him stumbling over his thoughts, none of his usual claims of smoothness even coming to mind as he just  _ looks.  _ Billy never calls him out for staring though, just smiles and gives a little shrug wiggle. 

“Let’s get to class, Blue,” Zack says with soft eyes skating down Billy’s face, refocusing himself on looking outside of this one other person he could maybe look at forever. He’s pretty sure he goes a rosy red when he feels Billy’s pinky finger wrap around his own, safe and guiding, but neither of them seem willing to look at the other for fear of breaking the fragile hold that their closeness has upon them. 

When they get to English, they don’t separate. They had claimed two seats next to each other at the beginning of the year, Billy making some vague excuses that just made the teacher look uncomfortable while Zack tried not to lose it against the prejudice ringing in this high school, but they’re fine. They sit together in the back row, pinkies linked between desks that they’ve pushed closer together than they should be just because they can, and Zack feels like he can breathe in English class. He only feels like he can breathe with any of the rangers within four feet of his person. 

“So, class, we’ve been working with Shakespeare this week! Today, I want to try something different. Turn to page 293, and you’ll find a selection of Shakespeare’s sonnets. I want you and a partner to each choose one and try reading it aloud to each other, analyzing the meaning after. If you finish analyzing the first two, continue. We’re ahead of my lesson plan, so I figured I might give you something a little fun today for a partner project!” their teacher says a few minutes after the bell rings, letting everyone settle into their desks. She claps her hands after making announcements like this, which doesn’t  _ exactly  _ get on Zack’s  _ last  _ nerve, but it’s pretty close. 

Zack doesn’t bother moving a muscle even as the rest of the class scatters across the classroom to pick out their partners. 

“You wanna share a book so we don’t have to grab more than one?” Zack offers, definitely not hoarding this slim chance at intimacy, but definitely not pushing it away either. Billy gives him a smile and nods, though he doesn’t look up at Zack. Used to such a thing and yet a little disappointed by not being able to see Billy’s pretty eyes, Zack stands to grab the book himself. It’s a bit of routine between the two of them, Zack grabbing the book while Billy grabs the pens that he likes for them to use during assignments (Zack’s a specific black fine tip while Billy’s is a bold blue). 

“Hey, Zack. Wanna be my partner?” a girl from the class asks when he walks to the books, obviously picking one up for assumably himself and a partner, but it’s fine. He’s gotten a lot more of this kind of attention since the rangers started, for some reason, as if he’s suddenly worth talking to because he’s so obviously emotionally unavailable. The only people he talks to on purpose are the other four rangers, but no, talk to him, sure. He just wants to get back to sitting with Billy. 

“Nah, sorry, I’m all partnered up,” he replies. He would say  _ maybe next time,  _ like a nice person, but it’s not going to happen next time either; he and Billy have partnered together this entire semester and won’t stop anytime soon. Billy is sure that the teacher is too scared to actually look at the details of his I.E.P. agreement and just agrees with whatever Billy says just in case. 

“You don’t have to partner with  _ him,  _ you know,” she says, the way that her ugly voice curls around a pronouns meant for Billy already setting Zack’s teeth on edge. He breathes out through his nose instead of absolutely losing it - he doesn’t need Jace on his ass any more than usual - and just turns on his heel, book in hand. He’s tired of the way that people treat Billy, tired of the way that people look at any of the rangers, tired of everyone. He just wants to curl up with the rangers in Billy’s basement watching sci-fi movies from the eighties while Billy leans against his side and makes comments about scientific improbabilities. 

“It’s okay, Z,” Billy says as Zack slides into his seat, a hand on his forearm Billy’s usual capacity for comfort, making Zack melt into it. There’s no one who can keep him calm like Billy, so Zack just pushes a smile and forces the girl out of his mind. 

“Want me to pick and read first or you?” he offers, his forced smile turning into something real just for a moment of looking at Billy, of looking at him and thinking about him and being in his space. Billy gives him a smile back before pushing the book from the center of their two desks over onto Zack’s. 

“You first,” he says simply, and Zack just nods. Flipping through the book, he finds 293 with a fair amount of speed, turning onto it and scanning through the following pages to find a sonnet that doesn’t look too horrible. Sonnet 105 doesn’t have any words he doesn’t know from a quick scan, but he doesn’t actually read it until he’s already reading it aloud. 

“Sonnet 105. Here we go:    
_ Let not my love be called idolatry, _ _   
_ _ Nor my beloved as an idol show, _ _   
_ _ Since all alike my songs and praises be _ _   
_ _ To one, of one, still such, and ever so. _ _   
_ _ Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind, _ _   
_ _ Still constant in a wondrous excellence; _ _   
_ _ Therefore my verse to constancy confined, _ _   
_ _ One thing expressing, leaves out difference. _ _   
_ _ Fair, kind, and true, is all my argument, _ _   
_ _ Fair, kind, and true, varying to other words; _ _   
_ _ And in this change is my invention spent, _ _   
_ _ Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords. _ _   
_ _ Fair, kind, and true, have often lived alone, _ _   
_ __ Which three till now, never kept seat in one,”  he reads. He has to swallow as he finishes, unable to look at Billy for how perfectly it stole the words from his throat. He has to look when Billy taps his desk, though. That’s their signal, their thing, and he has to look up, even if he’s gritting his teeth just to smile. He looks up at Billy and Billy is looking at him and they’re looking at each other and Zack’s heart is stopping in his chest. 

“Hi,” Billy says, his head dipped. Zack has to blink a wetness out of his eyes that thankfully doesn’t culminate into tears. 

“Hey,” he says back, a real smile taking over his face. Then, Billy is off. There’s a rambling explanation of language at the time, something about the way that Shakespeare uses the balance between arcane humor and blasphemy, how people generally find 105 repetitive and boring, but Billy thinks it’s lovely, and there’s a pause in Billy’s explanation there because he just looks at Zack for a second, just keeps his sweet expression for just a moment before continuing to speak, and Zack catches himself in the moment there. 

He loves Billy Cranston more than words can say. 

They’ve analyzed three more besides 105 by the time that the bell rings, but everything has kinda passed in a haze for Zack. He’s done his best to pay his utmost attention to Billy, to reply to every sentence and follow every bit of dialogue, but everything feels like background music. The entire day passes like that, even with the looks that Trini cuts him and the concern that Jason casts his way. Kimmy just looks like she knows something, but Kimberly Hart  _ always  _ looks like she knows something. Even lunch passes like that, though something in Zack warms when Billy thanks him for the honey mustard chicken and leans his face against Zack’s shoulder as a part of that thank you. 

“You’re coming home with me to annotate those poems for English, right? We’re supposed to cover the ones we didn’t finish in class,” Billy reminds him at the end of the day, and Zack nods. He’s coming back into himself as the rangers separate; Friday isn’t one of their training days because they can spend the entire weekend together, after all. He’ll likely spend the night at Billy’s, making a quick run to check on his mom once that night and once in the morning, before spending the entire weekend with the rangers and bringing them all to visit her throughout. She’s taken quite a liking to Jason. 

They end up holding hands over the gearshift of Billy’s van and Zack thinks he might have left his stomach in the bottom of his desk in first period, because there’s no way that anything he’s feeling is normal. He’s always going to let Billy touch him if Billy is in any kind of mood to touch and be touched, but maybe he shouldn’t. It feels like he’s taking advantage of the friendly way that Billy is getting more acclimated to the rangers, feels like he’s making romantic mountains out of platonic mole hills, just feels  _ wrong.  _ But, he won’t take his hand away, at least not now. 

He’s a little too weak for that right now, maybe. 

“I want to talk to you about something before we start working,” Billy breaks their silence about halfway to his house, which is to say about five minutes away. Zack swallows and slackens his grip on Billy’s hand, almost ready to pull away when Billy squeezes. Zack is more than glad that he can just keep his eyes on the road. 

“What about?” he asks, his voice casual in a way that he’s slightly proud of, but he can see Billy shaking his head out of the corner of his eye. 

“It’ll wait,” Billy says, final. Zack nods, pretending that the anxiety isn’t eating him alive. 

Mama Cranston kisses his forehead whenever he walks into her house and no matter how many times it happens, Zack always has to stop himself from tearing up. He has to remind himself that Mama Cranston doesn’t know Chinese, but she really does want to hear about his day, and she really does care. He makes small talk with her while Billy does something downstairs, Zack isn’t really sure, but he bows his head and goes when Billy calls. Mama Cranston always looks at him fondly when she’s speaking to him alone, like she knows more than he would ever say aloud. 

He wonders sometimes how much of it he wears on his face instead of on his sleeve. 

“I think you like me,” Billy says as soon as Zack closes the door behind himself. Zack’s entire body goes cold at once, uncontrollable and flashing, before he even turns to look at Billy. He’s tearing up. He’s clenching his jaw. He’s… really close to Billy. Billy is really close to him. Billy got up, apparently. 

“Yeah?” Zack asks, voice cracking as he swallows around the way that his pounding heart has made a home of his throat. He hates the way that some part of him calms when Billy starts playing with his fingertips. 

“I don’t mind,” Billy continues, not looking at him, but not  _ not  _ looking at him either. Just looking at Zack’s hand, fingers tapping fingertips and the air between them tight as a drum. Zack is just looking at Billy, just waiting. 

“Don’t mind?” he asks, feeling stupid. He has no idea what to do right now. 

“I think I like you too. I’ve never felt the way you make me feel before,” Billy admits, finally looking at Zack’s face. Zack is still pushing down tears, but in an entirely different way. He reaches his free hand toward Billy and makes his movements slow enough for Billy to pull away before his hand makes contact with Billy’s jaw, cupping it softly. He’s never been this close to Billy’s face, never been this intimate. He feels like he’s swallowed a frog. 

“I’ve never felt like this either, Blue. We can figure this out together,” he offers, his thumb stroking over Billy’s cheekbone. He nearly crumbles at how relieved Billy looks, like he expected Zack to expect a thousand things he wasn’t ready for. 

“Together?” Billy asks, his voice lighter than before, his smile returning. Zack is grinning when they hug for the second time today. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Find me @primekent on tumblr!


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